Response to Matthew 5 notes
SRD
I enjoyed reading the rough translations. The beatitudes have been a
portion of scripture that I have used to meditate and chew on. As I was
meditating on them this week, after reading your exegesis, I was using
The Spiritual Formation Bible that has meditation suggestions in the
margin. It suggested to take every characteristic and try substituting
the opposite characteristic.
The following are a few of my ideas about the reversals. There may be
better terms.
poor in spirit -- those full of themselves
those who mourn -- those who hold nothing dear, so loss means nothing to
them
meek -- arrogant
Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness -- those who don't care
about right and wrong
the merciful -- the merciless
the pure in heart -- the evil
peacemakers -- the divisive, the critical, the invaders, the war mongers
those who are persecuted for righteousness sake -- those who will
compromise anything in order to save their skin
Then, imagine what the community would be like if all people lived this
way.
This thinking of the effect of these people on a community, led to
considering that perhaps Jesus did not mean a personal blessing on each
group, as I thought he might. Instead, perhaps in those cases where the
tense was present, such as the first and last phrases, this was an
indication that the kingdom of God was at hand, or, in and around people
of this character. Perhaps this is a link to the scriptures about the
kingdom. Perhaps this is an indication that we can dwell in the kingdom
here on earth. This is what the people who dwell in the kingdom now
look like.
When the tense is future, perhaps the understanding might partially be
that these people bring blessings to the community. Perhaps this has
more to say about us living in community than in individual blessings.
I was intrigued in your mention of the parallel to the virtues of the
classical world. I had at one time made a table for my own instruction
of the ten commandments, the virtues and the spiritual gifts from
Corinthians.
>From A Handbook of Theological Terms by Van A. Harvey, the virtues are:
Four natural virtues: prudence, justice,
fortitude, & temperance
Three supernatural (imparted by God): faith, hope, and charity
The second group may not be part of the classical virtues. He says these
are the virtues as taught by the RC church. However, I believe the
first four may have been described by Plato.
This led me back to the ten commandments and the texts about what it
means to be righteous. These texts may add understanding to what it
means to hunger and thirst after righteousness, and being pure in heart.